Stanton ladles soup for Martin County Convent Monastery

Kathleen ThurberMidland Reporter-Telegram

Published 6:00 pm, Friday, February 15, 2008

If you've ever had trouble deciding between a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a bowl of chicken noodle soup, an entrant at today's Great Texas Soup Cook-Off in Stanton has the answer: Put them together.

Whether the twisted recipe tastes good, said Faye Wagner, who will enter her peanut butter, jelly and chicken soup against 14 others in tonight's contest, isn't really the point.

Proceeds from the contest will go to restore the Martin County Convent Monastery that was established in what is now Stanton more than 120 years ago, she said. Plus, Wagner added, she's got a reputation to uphold.

"I'll be there with my weird soup," Wagner said, explaining the 19-year tradition that has her searching for a crazier recipe to try each year. Last year it was apple beet - not quite the winner of the night, but a contender nonetheless.

John Kennady, vice president of the Martin County Covenant's non-profit group that puts on the event, said between 100 and 200 people usually come out to taste the soup, which in a town the size of Stanton - about 2,300 - is a sizable crowd, he said.

"That's not bad for a little town with a bunch of Soreheads," Kennady said.

The buildings exterior has been restored in recent years, he said, but to piece the interior back together will cost about $500,000. Last year's fundraiser brought in nearly $3,000 and they hope to do the same this year, adding to the general fund little by little.

"It's just a matter of trying to turn a historic building into a museum," he said.

The convent monastery originated after John Jacob Konz left Kansas in 1881 to establish a German Catholic colony in West Texas, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

Additional settlers arrived in 1885 and the group named the area Marienfeld or "field of Mary" in German.

After their arrival, they constructed the first Catholic church in West Texas and continued a year later to build a monastery for the Carmelite order, according to the historical association.

In 1894 a group of nuns opened a convent and Catholic school - the only of its kind between Fort Worth and El Paso. Though the monastery was moved in 1897, the nuns stayed in the area until 1938 when a tornado hit town.

The tornado destroyed additions that had been made to the convent, but the original adobe structure was left standing and bounced between families before being sold to the local restoration group, Wagner said.

"It holds an immense amount of history," Wagner said.

Maintaining what has become a Stanton landmark is the eventual goal of these yearly fundraisers, said Barbara Davidson-Hudgins, a Midlander who entered the contest with a team from Basin Detox, but that doesn't mean the stakes for being named the best soup aren't high.

'We try to give something away to get 'em to vote for us," she said, explaining the widely-used tactic of giveaways and bribes to lure a taster's vote.

Davidson-Hudgins's team will enter everyone who votes for them in a raffle for the bouquet of roses that will be sitting next to their Martin County Stew.

Wagner said she doesn't need to offer incentives - her reputation for oddity precedes her, even if locals aren't willing to cast a vote her way after sipping a spoonful.

And while she likes to watch people's faces as they try her strange mix of ingredients, she said, she ultimately wants them to leave with an understanding of the convent monastery's value.

"That unique structure along with its history not only belongs to Martin County," she said, "it belongs to everybody in the community."